RUSH: We’re gonna start in Oswego, New York, with Curt. Hello, sir.
CALLER: Yes. Good afternoon, Mr. Limbaugh. How are you?
RUSH: Very well. Appreciate that. Thank you.
CALLER: Hey, I have to tell you a little story. I’m a fire service Marine. I served under President Bush on Marine One as a helicopter crew chief. And I just happened to notice in some of the press —
RUSH: Wait. Hold it just a second. You, a helicopter crew chief on Marine One?
CALLER: Yes, sir.
RUSH: I didn’t know you guys were allowed to talk about that.
CALLER: Well, I’m out of the service now, so I think the danger has passed given what’s happened with the poor Marine on Facebook there.
RUSH: (laughing) All right.
CALLER: So I’m not sure what the statue of limitations is but there’s no national secrets that are gonna come out today, I can assure you of that.
RUSH: Okay, cool.
CALLER: I was proud to serve under President Bush, and one of the things that I noticed as we followed him around the country is that even as the president was purportedly on vacation, the man never stopped working. I could tell you from sunup to sundown he was in the field. He was clearing brush. He was doing the things that a typical person would do who’s away from work and still had responsibilities at home. And what I don’t see in President Obama is that kind of mentality. And, quite frankly, it’s a little appalling, and I was really proud to hear as I was waiting to connect with you, how fervently you believe — and I’m of the same opinion — that working Americans, we still hold pride in the fact that we know how to get our hands dirty. We know how to get things done and we can turn the country around, not because of President Obama, but in spite of him.
RUSH: It will happen. I am entirely confident of it. It is why I have not uprooted. It’s not a question of if; it’s only a question of when to me. You know, I saw a story. I haven’t checked the link. There’s a link on Drudge that says that Obama’s gonna take Memorial Day off.
CALLER: I find that very disappointing to hear that sort of thing. You know, one of the things that struck me about President Bush is that he was always grateful. He was always personable if you had the opportunity to meet him, and he never seemed like the kind of person that would look down his nose or turn his chin up at one of the service members.
RUSH: He didn’t.
CALLER: And while I cannot say that I served under President Obama, I do not get that same impression.
RUSH: Well, you would know. I mean if you’re the mechanic, Marine One, Bush oftentimes on Christmas Day, Thanksgiving, would stay in town so the Secret Service could spend time with their families, people like you could do that, then head off to wherever he was going. Obama, I’ve heard a lot of people say he’s nine to four. His work day is nine to four. Now, presidents are always — I mean the phone can always ring. But I still know what you mean. I saw on Drudge that link that Obama’s gonna take Memorial Day off. My first reaction is, how will we know? How could we tell? Curt, thanks much.
Steven, Shreveport, Louisiana. Hi.
CALLER: Yes, Rush. Thank you for allowing me to express my opinion today. I hope you have a good Memorial Day.
RUSH: All right. Cool.
CALLER: In the real world, Rush, I am not allowed to band together with a thousand of my fellow private citizens and invest $2,000 to capitalize a startup company of $2 million. I don’t have the freedom to do that. You have to be a certified investor and have a million dollars in assets right now. We don’t have that freedom, Rush.
RUSH: What is your point?
CALLER: My point is you’re talking about Obama is trying to take our freedom away to be entrepreneurs and start up companies. That freedom does not exist for only six million Americans right now. And we need to change that. And I don’t see the Republicans moving to change any of that.
RUSH: Well, I have to admit I don’t know what you’re talking about.
CALLER: You know anybody run equity funds? You’re not allowed to run an equity fund unless you’re a certified —
RUSH: Oh, oh, oh, you’re talking about the private equity. I thought you were talking about starting any business whatsoever.
CALLER: Well, you still have a limit. Any private business can be capitalized by and how many investors. If you’re not certified investor, you can’t do it.
RUSH: Okay, so you’re basically saying the deck’s stacked against you. If you want to be an entrepreneur these days, you can’t do it?
CALLER: It’s been that way for 20 or 30 years.
RUSH: So you’re saying if you have to go out and borrow money or get investors to start a business, that you can’t do it?
CALLER: No, sir. Not if it’s over a million dollars. You can’t do it as a private citizen. Only if you’re a certified investor and you’re part of an equity fund. You can’t do it.
RUSH: What if you had a million dollars of your own, could you do it?
CALLER: Well, how many people have that?
RUSH: Well, I know, but I’m just asking, if you had a million dollars of your own could you do it?
CALLER: Sure you could.
RUSH: All right.
CALLER: So this is our big problem right now. I know there’s a bill in Congress to try to fix this, but I haven’t heard anybody talk about this.
RUSH: Well, people are. You’ve gotten very specific. But everybody is talking about burdensome regulations, obstacles in their way, more trouble than it’s worth. And then even if you go over all those obstacles, then if you succeed, then you become a target. If you happen to succeed, something about you will get noticed, and you’ll end up being a target of tax law or what have you. No, people are very much aware. Yeah, I know people band together to invest every day, but he’s talking about a specific — he’s talking about private equity. He’s talking about becoming a Bain Capital. But I don’t know how different that is than it’s actually always been, but I’m not arguing with you about the fact that entrepreneurism is tougher than it has ever been.